SOCIETY
Man sues runaway bride
A court has ordered a runaway bride to pay NT$250,000 (US$8,620) in emotional damage to her groom-to-have-been for not showing up at their wedding, local media reported on Friday. The woman, who was five months pregnant at the time, failed to show up at the wedding ceremony in November after she and her intended had fought over the number of guests to be invited, media reports said. The deeply embarrassed groom decided on a whim to ask the maid of honor to stand in the bride’s place to fake a wedding, but ended up falling in love with the understudy and later married her for real, the reports said. The groom, who lives in Greater Kaohsiung, was awarded NT$250,000 in a final verdict, although he had sought NT$1 million. The runaway bride is raising her baby alone, the reports said.
LABOR
Workers protest overwork
More than 200 workers are expected to gather outside the Council of Labor Affairs in Taipei today to protest long working hours and call for the scrapping of a labor law clause they say has given employers cover to overwork their employees. Lin Ming-che (林名哲), secretary-general of the protest’s co-organizer, the Trade Union of Electrical, Electronic and Information Workers in Taiwan, said Article 84-1 of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) exempts certain types of employees from work-hour limits, and today’s protest will call for it to be abolished. He said the clause has allowed employers in the manufacturing and service sectors to force some of their employees to work long hours without paying them overtime. The article states that workers in certain jobs, such as supervisors, managers, authorized specialists and monitors, may arrange their own working hours, regular days off, national holidays and female workers’ night work through other agreements with their employers. The clause, Lin said, has meant that overtime abuses are widespread, and especially in electronics, where many engineers have fallen ill or even died from working too many hours.
SOCIETY
Passports in demand in LA
Applications for passports at Taiwan’s representative office in Los Angeles increased 50 percent year-on-year in both June and last month, possibly because of interest in voting in January’s presidential election, according to a Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) official in Los Angeles. TECO in Los Angeles director--general Kung Chung-chen (龔中誠) attributed the abrupt rise in part to the growing convenience of Taiwanese passports and the desire of citizens to participate in Taiwan’s national health insurance system. However, the increase could also be related to the Jan. 14 presidential election and the potential help a passport could provide, Kung said.
DIPLOMACY
Volunteers map diabetes
Medical volunteers from two Taiwanese hospitals have helped Saint Lucia complete its first diabetes “map” and helped authorities in the Caribbean ally raise public awareness of the disease. Ambassador Tom Chou (周台竹) said Changhua Christian Hospital has sent seven volunteer groups to Saint Lucia since November 2009. During those trips, the volunteers came to realize that diabetes has taken a major toll on the country. In the most recent volunteer mission, medical professionals from National Taiwan University Hospital and Changhua Christian Hospital studied the causes behind patients’ diabetes and where they lived and then compiled the information in a map.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry